Deborah Gonzalez for DA

1 week ago

My opponents (seems they are working together even though one came in third and is not in the runoff) often throw out I have no experience - I will not be able to do the job. They misunderstand the job they are actually running for - Ken Mauldin prosecuted one case (1) in the last seven (7) years. There are 18 other attorneys in the office. They don't need another working prosecutor, they need a leader - someone who will bring the office up to the standards of today, not of 20 or 48 years ago. Athens/Oconee is ready for change, because what we've had is not good enough and what my opponent(s) offer is the status quo. The following is how I responded to a personal email sent to me about experience.

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To me experience is a series of past decisions made. To evaluate it you need to look at the consequences of those decisions. Did they benefit or harm the community? That’s why I’m running for DA. The harm is too much and the people causing it have become blind to the impact of their everyday actions.

I am not a career prosecutor and during these turbulent times in our country that is a good thing. The DAs in the Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd cases were all career prosecutors. And no one will say justice was done in those cases.

That is not what our community wants nor needs. What it needs is leadership to a way forward. Through my leadership 150,000 voters in Athens and Oconee got their right to vote back after the Governor cancelled the DA election. In fact, yesterday the GA Supreme Court decided that I was right and gave me and the people a decisive unanimous victory. Our election is not only on, but it and all of your votes cast for DA are safe and will be counted. I didn’t wait for someone else to correct what was wrong. I took the necessary steps myself.

I will support and assist in expanding diversion programs, treatment courts, and community-based interventions. I’ll tackle serious crime and support victims every step of the way. And finally, I will be a part of the solution. I won’t just send people to jail to suck the life out of them. I’ll support efforts to help all people be equipped with the resources and tools they need to return to our community and help make it better.

I offer not what we’ve had but what we could have – a DA office based on fair & just prosecution, an end to the school to prison pipeline, a commitment to address the systemic racism that oppresses almost ½ of the people in our community through our current criminal legal system.

There are 18 prosecuting attorneys in that office - an office with a staff of 34 plus the DA. The DA is the leader - she sets policy and is accountable to the community - the people. Most DA offices function in the way I am proposing - a DA who leads and attorneys who do the trials. So my approach is not uncommon - just different from what we’ve had here. And what we’ve had here doesn’t work for the majority of our community, even if it works fine for my opponent and others like him.

Status Quo is not what we need. We need transformative change - we need a criminal legal system that is truly based on justice and is restorative - not punitive and based on the color of your skin.

My conservative opponent has been part of the criminal legal system here in Athens for years – what has he accomplished? A DA office which has perpetuated systemic racism, puts our kids in jail too often, serves as an obstacle to access to diversion programs, and fails to support victims. It is time to hold the DA’s office accountable and let them know the status quo is not acceptable anymore.

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